This Predoctoral Training Program is designed to provide a broad education in the Pharmacological Sciences leading to the Ph.D. degree. The Pharmacological Sciences Training Program (PSTP) is based primary in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, but includes faculty from four schools within the University and sixteen departments including Anesthesiology, Cell Biology and Physiology, Chemistry, Environmental and Occupational Health, Neurobiology and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Graduate students entering this program are first recruited into the Interdisciplinary Biomedical Graduate Program where they start a program that includes core didactic education and research rotations. Students then transfer into the specialized PhD program of their choice and become candidates for support by the PSTP in their second year. The training program provides graduate classes in the essential elements of modern pharmacology, including neuropharmacology, cancer pharmacology, cardiovascular pharmacology, signal transduction and drug discovery, and also the elements of quantitative pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and drug metabolism. Students choose mentors from a well-funded faculty in one of four research areas: Cancer Pharmacology, Signal Transduction, Drug Discovery or Cell and Organ System Pharmacology. Following completion of the comprehensive exam and a dissertation proposal, students are engaged full time in research in the third and subsequent years of this program. The PSTP also emphasizes training in the responsible conduct of research and provides training in skills that promote professional development. The PSTP thus provides a contemporary and exciting training opportunity for motivated students within a rich research environment, and aims to generate Ph.D. graduates with a broad understanding of the discipline of pharmacology.